This collection was a gift from heirs of Whitney Warren to the Avery Library in 1952. Several portraits of Whitney Warren
were a gift of Mary Mathews Happy in 1986.

Terms of Access:

This collection is
available for use by qualified readers by appointment in the Archives and Drawings' Reading Room, Avery Architectural
and Fine Arts Library at Columbia University. Collections maintained in off-site storage will be retrieved with
advance
notification only; for further details, please consult the Drawings & Archives staff. For further information
and to make an
appointment, please call (212) 854-4110.

Restrictions on Use or Access:

Columbia University is providing access to the materials
in the Library's collections solely for noncommercial educational and research purposes. The unauthorized use,
including,
but not limited to, publication of the materials without the prior written permission of Columbia University is
strictly prohibited.
All inquiries regarding permission to publish should be submitted in writing to the Director,
Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University. For additional guidance, see
Columbia University Libraries' publication policy.

In addition to permission from Columbia University, permission
of the copyright owner (if not Columbia University) and/or any holder of other rights (such as publicity and/or
privacy rights) may also be required for reproduction, publication, distributions, and other uses. Responsibility for making
an independent legal
assessment of any item and securing any necessary permissions rests with the persons desiring to publish the item.
Columbia University makes no warranties as to the accuracy of the materials or their fitness for a particular
purpose.

Finding aid written by Annemarie van Roessel for the Columbia University Libraries. Avery Architectural
and Fine Arts Library, Dept. of Drawings and Archives; machine-readable finding aid
created by Columbia University Libraries Digital Library Program Division.

Finding Aid Date:

2006-05-01

Identifier:

(CStRLIN)NYDA88-A89

Biographical Note

Architects Whitney Warren (1864-1943) and Charles D. Wetmore (1866-1941) are perhaps best known today for their monumental
Beaux-Arts
Grand Central Terminal in New York City (1904-1912). Their practice, however, included a diverse catalog of building
types and architectural styles
across the United States and internationally. Partners for more than three decades, their success was built on
the far-reaching commercial and social
networks that grew from the rapid growth of American cities during the Gilded Age, with long-standing commissions
from many of America’s most
prominent businessmen and families.

Educated in architecture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris between 1887 and 1894, Whitney Warren maintained a life-long
devotion to European
classicism—especially in its French variants—and principles of Beaux-Arts planning. Shortly after returning
from Paris, Warren’s competition entry to
design the Newport (Rhode Island) Country Club received first place, and his long career as an architect to New
York’s society began in earnest.
With the subsequent commission for the New York Yacht Club's new headquarters in 1898, Warren invited Harvard-educated
Charles Wetmore—lawyer,
businessman, and real estate developer—to establish a joint partnership to complete the club and to undertake
other architectural projects. From 1898
until retiring in 1931, Warren and Wetmore received multiple commissions from members of their prominent familal
and social circles, as well as from leading
hoteliers, transportation magnates, and developers, often sharing in the investment as stockholders.

In addition to Grand Central Terminal (in partnership with architects Reed & Stem) and the New York Yacht Club, among the
firm’s most
significant commissions were expansions to the William K. Vanderbilt Estate, "Idle Hour," on Long Island; the
Ritz, Vanderbilt, Ambassador and Biltmore hotels in Manhattan and across the
United States, Canada, and the Caribbean; opulent Manhattan townhouses for relatives of the Vanderbilts and Astors;
elite apartment buildings on
Park Avenue and Fifth Avenue; country clubs and tennis and squash courts in Tuxedo Park, Long Island, South Carolina,
and Massachusetts; and
expansive estates in suburban New Jersey, the Hudson River Valley, and on Long Island. Other major commercial
and institutional commissions
included the Seamen’s Church Institute, Steinway Hall, the Heckscher building, the New Aeolian Hall, and the Chelsea
Piers complex, all in Manhattan.
In the 1910s and 1920s, Warren & Wetmore were also deeply involved in designing railroad stations and terminals
along the New York Central Line and
for various Canadian railroad lines, an outgrowth of their association with Reed & Stem. After World War
I, Whitney Warren also received considerable
acclaim for his carefully conceived reconstruction of the war-damaged library for the University of Louvain
in Belgium.

Scope and Content

This collection contains architectural photographs, drawings and records related to the architectural projects and designs
of Warren and Wetmore, principally
in the United States, but also representing commissions in Canada, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. Unfortunately, the bulk
of architectural drawings produced by the firm
are no longer extant. Additionally, it holds a variety of photographs and other records used as reference materials
in the course of Warren and Wetmore's professional
work. Lastly, a small group of student and personal papers and photographs from Whitney Warren completes the collection.

Arrangement

This material is arranged in five series: Project Records; Reference Files; Office Records; Professional Papers; and Personal
Papers.

The arrangement of materials within each series is described at the beginning of each series inventory.

Comprised of materials that have no apparent direct relation to commissions by Warren & Wetmore, this material is arranged
in three subseries:
Reference Photographs, Reference Drawings, and Reference Printed Papers. Within each subseries,
materials are arranged alphabetically by title, with unidentified materials listed at the end of each subseries.

Includes documents from the Order National de la Légion d'Honneur, Harvard University, Société des Artistes Français, Société
Centrale d'Architecture de Belgique, New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects,

Box 32

Warren, Whitney. Honors and Recognitions.
—
8 items

1925-1928

Materials primarily related to Warren's work on the Louvain University Library, Brussels, Belgium.